Hey can you elaborate on living in NYC as a resident?
Obviously this is personality dependent but since you sound much more than satisfied Id love to hear your opinion.
What was particularly worth it, any challenges etc
Not everyone takes to city life. I LOVED it. It's about this air of the city how there is always something going on. I just loved the concept of living in NYC. Anywhere I traveled to, if you were in a taxi or talking to ppl or whatever, you just say "I'm from NYC"...instant convo. I get a decent number of pts who grew up in NYC and moved...I make an instant connection with them.
People in NYC can be jerks, but there is this unsaid bond that all New Yorkers have...it's a thing you can't describe until you experience it.
The actual doing: I lived in sorta an L shaped studio apartment with a fairly nice kitchen and bathroom. It was probably about 200 or 300 square feet maybe? I lived around 59th and 10th. The housing was subsidized and was $1700/month. Taxes are rough. When I lived in NYC it was the first time in my life that I actually had to PAY IN to taxes in April instead of getting a return. It's brutal.
If you have a family, you would likely want to send your kids to something other than public city schools. This can run 20 to 40k a year iirc. Daycare and other costs are crazy too. Food is not THAT much more expensive if you grocery it. I still go to the grocery store and buy 2 to 3 days worth of food at a time despite having the means to do the whole 'fill a cart and store it and eat it throughout the week/month' thing. That's something to get used to. I got used to it, and a I said, hold on to it.
Travel can be interesting. First of all there are three airports that are very easy to reach. However, as a resident, you won't have a car (Manhattan is much more drivable than ppl give it credit for though). Penn station is what I mostly used. You lose convenience for sure. Penn station the day before thanksgiving is the epitome of hell on earth haha. Every time I traveled, I would remember getting into Penn station, getting on the subway, then the minute you get off the subway and take the escalator up to the city street...I would just get this invigorated feeling and remember how much I loved it there.
You'll see and experience things you just can't get anywhere else. I was on call over Thanksgiving my first year of residency. I left my apartment, walked three blocks, and there I was watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade.
To be honest, if you are making money, you can make it work. You may have to live leaner than you are used to and really do a written out budget and stick to it. Howevever, as someone else pointed out, 2 residents with kids and a lot of debt would be a tough one.
Out of all the things I've done in my life, that is at the very top or close to the very top of experiences I would never trade in/change. I luckily only live a few hours from the city now. Every time I go back I walk around and just feel happy. I can't explain it...again, you have to experience it. And again...not for everybody. I'm getting way nostalgic just typing this out. Anyway, if you are a city person and don't have too many expenses you can make it work and in the end, the experience is something money just can't buy.
